


Two Girls Roaming

by LadyZoZo



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Academy Era, Best Friends, Breaking The Rules, Gallifrey, Sneaking Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24935938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyZoZo/pseuds/LadyZoZo
Summary: Romana and Arkytior investigate some odd rumours surrounding the academy courtyard, where they meet some strange visitors...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Two Girls Roaming

“Arkytrior no!” Romana repeats for the twelfth time. “We can’t just tiptoe around the rules like that. We’d be punished. Severely.”

“Oh come on.” Arkytior slumps backwards onto Romana’s bed, messing up her perfectly laid out covers. Why Romana kept letting Arkytior into her dormitory when she made such a mess she had no idea. “It’ll be perfectly safe. Uncle Braxiatel is on duty tonight, and we both know he’ll be too busy looking at the new statue in the assembly hall to catch us, so where’s the danger?”

Romana sighs. Arkytior had a point. But no, they couldn’t just go galavanting about in the middle of the night. “The danger is that we could still be caught. And besides, why would I even want to go roaming about the academy grounds at night? In fact why do you even want to do it.”

“Because it’ll be fun.” Arkytior offers Romana a smile. “And besides, I want to show you something.”

“And what's that then?”

“That would spoil the surprise!” Arkytior sits up and hops off the bed. She reaches forwards and grabs Romana’s arm playfully, tugging it to ease her off the bed. “Come on, I want to see it with you.”

Romana pulls her arm away, giggling a little. “No Arkytior.”

“Well then.” Arkytior stands up straight and puts on a straight face. “I guess I’m going by myself then.”

“Wait, what?”

“Well I still want to see this thing, so if you’re not coming then I’ll just go alone.” She walks over to the door and inputs the private door code (that only she, Romana and the headmistress knew). The door slides open and she goes to step outside.

Romana couldn’t let this happen. Arkytior can’t just break the rules by herself, she was reckless and not very discreet so she was bound to get caught on her own. Romana had to go with her, she had less chance of getting into trouble with Romana by her side.

“Hold on Arkytior.” Romana sighs and stands up. “I’m coming too.”

“Oh goodie!” Arkytior jumps with excitement. “I knew you couldn’t bear to miss out on an adventure.”

Romana shakes her head in disbelief. You wouldn’t believe that Arkytior was the older of the pair, would you. She walks over to the door, grabbing her warmest fur coat on the way, and joins Arkytior in the corridor. “Where exactly do you want to go wandering off to?”

“The courtyard.” Arkytior tells her. “I heard rumours about… well you’ll see.”

“We’re breaking the rules because you heard about some rumours?” Romana shakes her head again and shuts her dormitory door. “Fine. Just lead the way. And be quiet for goodness sake, the last thing we need is the whole building waking up because you screamed at a shadow.”

“I do not scream!” Arkytior whines, lying.

“Now we both know that isn’t true.” Romana scoffs. “Now let's just get going, shall we?”

Arkytior briefly considers arguing further, but instead nods and and briskly walks down the corridor. Romana walks beside her, already feeling the need to look over her shoulder. Though she did have to admit, she did get a bit of an adrenaline rush whenever the pair of them got up to these kinds of antics. It wasn’t a common thing they did, only every few months or so, but Romana always found herself enjoying it. Even if she was opposed to them in principle.

It wasn’t too far to the courtyard, just down the stairs and through the library. That was one of the many benefits of living on the first floor. Romana dreaded to think what the trek that the students on the fiftieth floor faced every day must be like. But because they lived on the first floor, it only took Romana and Arkytior around five minutes to reach the courtyard.

“Well, what is it you wanted me to see?” Romana asks.

Arkytior pulls out a small device from her pocket, a makeshift artron detector, and turns it on. “Wait and see.”

“Is that- did you make that Arkytior?”

“Hm mm.” Arkytior nods. “In my free period this evening.”

“I’m impressed.” Romana marvels.

Arkytior moves the device around, pointing it around the courtyard. Eventually it starts beeping and flashing. “Over here. Come look.”

Romana follows Arkytior over to the corner of the courtyard. “What am I supposed to be looking at?” She asks.

“The stone seal on that wall.” Arkytior points at the large stone seal of Rassilon jutting out of the wall. It was taller than Romana was.

“What about it?”

“Well, we were sitting here only yesterday.” Arkytior reminds her. “Was this seal here?”

“I… I suppose it wasn’t.” Romana frowns. “Then how did it get here? Unless… no? Really?”

“Really really.” Arkytior pockets her device and walks over to the seal. “It’s a TARDIS. I thought it might be. I heard rumours about there being a spike of artron energy in the area, nobody was sure why though because everything looked the same.”

“But you figured it out?” Romana asks. “You knew it was a TARDIS?”

“I took an educated guess.” She replies. “My grandfather has been showing me books about TARDISes recently so I thought it might have landed with it’s perception filter on. I was right.” She holds up her hand carefully and places her palm on the stone. It looked cold, but she didn’t care. “It is, I can feel it. The hum of a living TARDIS. Come on Romana, you have a go.”

Romana steps forwards and mimics Arkytior. She gently holds up her hand and places it on the stone.

Immediately she felt the buzz of life hum against her hand. It still felt stone, rather cold stone too, but it vibrated just enough for her to know that it wasn’t actually stone. “It is, it’s a TARDIS.”

“You doubted me?” Arkytior teases.

“Of course not.”

“Well then.” Arkytior raises her head proudly. “Oh I can’t wait to tell Grandfather about this when I see him next, he’ll be so excited.”

Romana briefly wishes she had someone to tell about this, but pushes the thought from her mind immediately. “Yes it is rather exciting. I wonder why it’s here though.”

“No idea.” Arkytior shrugs. “I suppose if it’s important we’ll find out in assembly though.”

“I suppose so.”

“Excuse me?!” A voice cuts across the courtyard, directed at the two young women. “What do you kids think you’re doing?” Romana feels her hearts speed up in fear. This was it. This was the day they got caught and finally got punished for one of their misadventures.

“Oh crumbs.” Arkytior mumbles.

“Get off that!” The voice calls out. “Or I’ll call for the nearest tutor!”

Romana and Aryktior withdraw their arms and share a nervous look with one another. Romana could see that Arkytior was frightened, she hadn’t ever been in trouble before. Neither had Romana for that matter. “It’ll be ok.” Romana whispers. “Lets just own up to it.”

Arkytior nods and the pair slowly turn around. Arkytior takes Romana’s hand for comfort as they face their prosecutor. 

Romana was surprised by two things when she saw them. Number one, there were two of them, which she hadn’t expected, and number two, the taller man was wearing CIA robes, which was odd in itself, and the girl beside him wore a simple white dress that would get Romana into trouble if she wore it because of the amount of skin it put on display. She could feel Arkytior was shocked as well because her grip on her hand tightens.

“I- I’m sorry.” Romana tells them. “We were just looking.”

“Oh great Rassilon…” The CIA agent mutters.

The woman stares at Romana in shock. Not both her and Arkytior, just her. “But Narvin, that is-”

The agent elbows her in the arm. “Hush.” He clears his throat and stands up straight. “Apologies ladies, we appear to have… landed in the wrong place.”

“Wrong time more like it!” The woman hisses.

“Hush!” The agent, Narvin wasn’t it, hisses back at her. “Listen, I’m sorry to interrupt what I’m sure is a very lovely evening but we really need to get to that… oh I’m sure you know, we need to get to that TARDIS you were fondling.”

Romana frowns at the pair. “May I ask why you are here? CIA don’t normally come to the academy, not ever.”

“Ah well, special circumstances, needed to borrow a book that’s only in your library. Uh, don’t tell anyone though.” He taps his nose. “It’s confidential.”

“Right.” Romana says.

“Well, can you move?” Narvin asks. “Me and Lee- uh, my trainee had better be going.”

“Of course.” Romana nods, still very confused, and steps aside. “Come on Arkytior.”

Arkytior nods and follows Romana. “What book were you getting?” She asks curiously.

The woman holds up an old, thin leather bound book. “We found it under the floorboards.”

“Don’t say that!” The agent exclaims. He sighs and walks over to the TARDIS, unlocking it with a key. “Look, just please try and forget about this encounter would you ladies? And don’t tell anyone about it, or else.”

He opens up the stone seal and steps inside. The woman trots along behind him. “Goodnight Romana.” She says with a cheeky grin before stepping inside the time machine, leaving Romana feeling rather surprised. Before she can question it though a loud wheezing and groaning sound fills the courtyard and the stone seal starts to fade away, leaving no trace of itself behind.

“How did she know your name?” Arkytior asks, just as shocked as Romana. “I thought I was the only one who called you Romana?”

“You are...” Romana quietly confirms. “I haven’t told anyone else about that version of the name.”

“Then… how did she know?” Arkytior asks. “And who were they? They looked important but I’ve never heard of them before.”

“Narvin, she said his name was.” Romana frowns. “I recognise the name… isn’t there a Narvin in the Patrex academy? Narvinectra-something or other?”

Arkytior shrugs. “I wouldn’t know.”

Romana sighs. “Well, this has been an odd night.”

“Can we go back inside now?” Arkytior asks. “We could read together before going to bed?”

Romana squeezes Arkytior’s hand. “That sounds wonderful. Come on, let’s head back. We can worry about this tomorrow.”

Romana leads Arkytior back into the academy building and does her best not to worry about why some stranger knew who she was. If it was important then she would probably find out soon. Probably.


End file.
